Rather Quick Chat: Bloody Good Time

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The next game from the team that made superb Half-Life mod The Ship, Outerlight, is called Bloody Good Time. It’s another “murder party” Source-engined game, too. This time it’s a game about ambitious teen actors bumping each other off for roles in an upcoming movie, a process which takes place in a comedic first-person battle. Ubisoft have elected to publish the game, and so we put a few questions about to Nouredine Abboud, Ubisoft’s Senior Producer on the project. Read our quick chat below.RPS: Can you tell us a bit about how the game plays out? What do the various game modes mean?

Abboud: It’s all about a crazy Murder Party. You hunt (you have a target) and you are hunted (you are targeted) and it’s about finding your prey (that can be in disguise), approaching it and killing it without getting caught by the security or getting killed by your prey or your hunter :) But the game really gets fun with the weapons (the more crazy the weapon you use, the more points you get) and the management of your personal needs (yes, you must go to the toilets !).

The game modes are variations around this.

RPS: Do the different characters have differing abilities?

Abboud: Because of the nature of the game (you keep swapping characters and disguising) and the fact that we wanted to focus on players’ skills, the characters don’t have different abilities. But you as a player can decide to use specific weapons, hence be better at specific kills.

RPS: What sort of environments are players going to find themselves in, and what will that mean for play? (The PR blather mentions “traps and environment interactions”?)

Abboud: The game is happening on a movie set where three slasher/teenage films are being produced with Halloween, Spring break and Vegas as environments. The locations are full of traps that you can use to kill your prey. Yes, you can either use weapons, traps and can even push them in the toilet sink.

RPS: What lessons did you learn from The Ship that apply in Bloody Good Time?

Abboud: We’ve changed the setting and focused the gameplay on the most fun elements (selection of weapons, personal needs, interactions…). If you liked The Ship, you’ll like BGT, but if you did not, maybe BGT will appeal to you with it’s more direct feel.

RPS: Why actors?

Abboud: Because they are the victims of an evil movie-maker who asks them to play in slasher movies, but for real, and awards points to the most ruthless killers. You know, showbiz can be cruel! And also because we wanted a setting that gave us the possibility to have varied environments and possibilities for disguises.

Bloody Good Time is out “soon”. No confirmation on DRM at time of writing, but since it’s an online game I think you can make some educated guesses.

From the lowliest mud farmer to the most powerful God Emperor, we must all answer the call of nature. It’s a common experience that is often talked about and the source of many jokes. Therefore, for a game to have any chance at true immersion, to tap into the human condition, it must have at least one toilet. In fact, immersiveness has been shown to increase linearly with number of toilets presented in every scene.

@Kali: Apparently it’s been listed on Steam’s backend servers for months and months, and Outerlight developers have been spotted testing/playing it via steam prior to its announcement. So it looks like it’s currently Steam-protected like The Ship (from the same developers), or RUSE (from the same publishers). But it’s Ubisoft, so you never know.

I’m guessing the DRM in question may be steam, given the use of the Source engine and the fact that The Ship was also a steam exclusive. Not to mention Ubisoft’s is ok with using steamworks since RUSE was released on steam.

“focused the gameplay on the most fun elements (selection of weapons, personal needs, interactions…). ”

Really? I thought stalking and killing your target was the most fun part of The Ship, selection of weapons was more a nice bonus while personal needs and interactions was generally to keep people apart of moving about as opposed to being fun in itself.